A Scary Idea

Crossposted on Pam's House Blend

Listening to the Right Wing Hordes of Evil whine so much this week about the activist judge stealing Californians right to vote has me thinking. And watching Maggie Gallagher publicly contradict herself on the subject made it very clear. I know how we can expose the Religious Right's huge appalling hypocrisy in a way that they can't weasel out of. And it's a terrifying idea with dangerous risks, but it would show their arguments about voters right to be backpeddalling semantic bullshit.

Introduce a bill to limit the freedoms of Arab-Americans.

Scary idea right? Of course it is. And no such bill should ever be tabled. But think about what would happen if it were.

Racism in America is a lot more prevalant than most people want to admit. Especially in a still raw after nearly a decade post-9/11 America. While obviously many people would, at least publicly, decry and denounce such a bill, in the voting booth, no one can see which box you tick.

And all the evidence in America with the pervasive attitudes on display tell me that a majority of voters would tick Yes, no matter their public opinion.

And the much-balleyhooed "Will of the People" will have violated America's constitution and stripped a minority of it's basic garaunteed human right to full equality.

Why did this scary horrifying idea cross my mind? I don't hate Muslims and I'd fight against such a bill if it ever came to pass. But Maggie Gallagher double-stepped on Cooper's show this week. When the minority in question was gay people, Maggie said no judge has any business or right to overturn the popular vote, because the will of the people had spoken against gay equality.

But then just a few minutes later, Cooper pointed out to Maggie that in the 60s, if giving BLACK people equal rights had been put to a popular vote, the "will of the people" would have said no, because racists still outnumbered non-racists, and statistics showed as much. And Cooper asked Maggie what if the popular vote had stripped black people of basic equal rights? And Maggie said the Supreme Court would overturn such a vote because equality can't be voted on.

No, I'm not advocating any bill that would strip ANY minorities rights. What I'm suggesting is a hypothetical example that would force Maggie to admit she and her kind have absolutely NO right to vote any minority into second-class status. Especially considering her husband is Hindu, which to many among the more ignorant in America is interchangable with Muslim; A scary foreign faith they don't understand and don't want mingling with the Baby Jesus.

The USA Constitution garauntees Freedom and equality for all. And NO ONE has any right to vote on someone else's human rights.

So no Rightwing Nutcakes, it isn't the Judge's decision on Prop 8 that violated the Constitution. It was putting Prop 8 on the ballot to begin with.